linux-kernel - Re: Western Digital GreenPower drives and Linux

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <bb145bd20804100801y157b4a34m82f084d27f1e0586@mail.gmail.com>
Date:	Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:01:38 +0200
From:	"Christian Pernegger" <pernegger@...il.com>
To:	"Tvrtko A. Ursulin" <tvrtko@...ulin.net>
Cc:	linux-ide@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Western Digital GreenPower drives and Linux

[ Keep me CCd on this, please. ]

>  Those fancy new WD GreenPower drives seem to be heavily suffering from the
>  rapidly increasing head load/unload problem. [...] I got one of them
>  (WD5000AACS) recently and to my horror [...]

I have the same disks, only with more warranty and supposedly
"enterprise" firmware (WD1000FYPS). The bug is the same, though, on
all four of them (~ 9 cycles /hour):

  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age
Always       -       917
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   198   198   000    Old_age
Always       -       8025

  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age
Always       -       906
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   198   198   000    Old_age
Always       -       7908

  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age
Always       -       907
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   198   198   000    Old_age
Always       -       8051

  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age
Always       -       918
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   198   198   000    Old_age
Always       -       7869

>  I got the _DOS_ utility from WD which issues vendor specific commands to
>  control that feature.

Have they confirmed it's a bug? I have no idea how often the disks
should do that.

>  [...] With it the unload feature can be either disabled or timer set from
>  100ms to 25.5 seconds. But obviously I can't try it...

Why? Using a DOS boot disk once would not be that bad as a workaround,
would it? Or is the setting not persistent? Either way I'd prefer to
be able to leave the feature on (in usable form), eventually.

The bigger question is - why the rapid loads / unloads? In my case the
disks are idle hours at a time. No system files on there, just bulk
data. Does / could the controller (sata_sil24 in my case) have any
influence on this kind of power management?

Thanks,

C.
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/